We have six large hummingbird feeders surrounding our house in Northern California but we also have several flower beds and native plants that the hummingbirds enjoy.
As I sat on my back porch last weekend, contemplating mowing the native grasses surrounding the house and having some breakfast and my morning coffee, the hummers were all around.
Four of the six feeders hang below the roof of the covered porch so there is always hummingbird activity there but some of the birds were also visiting the Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria Saturne) next to the water feature.
Since the sun was at a good angle for catching this little explosion of color, I decided to grab my camera and take a photo break before tackling the mowing.
These images were all shot with my Nikon D90, AF-S Nikkor 200-400mm f/4G lens with a 1.7 teleconverter. They were all shot at f/6.7 with the ISO set at 640. The first four images were taken at 1/1600 seconds while these last two were a little slower at 1/1250 seconds. Notice how much more blurred the wings are with the slower shutter speed.
I enjoyed my photography break so much that I never got around to the mowing duties! Oh well, C’est la vie, such is life! If you enjoy birds as much as I do, check out Wild Bird Wednesday and The Bird D’pot and share your own bird photos.
Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan is an avid birder and amateur photographer living on the Pacific Flyway near the Central Valley of Northern California. He is a board member of his local Audubon Society and is a bird and wildlife conservationist. Larry contributes to several wildlife conservation organizations and is a BirdLife International "Species Champion." He is also Habitat Manager for the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network, an organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Western Burrowing Owl population in the United States. Larry has been blogging about birds since September of 2007 at TheBirdersReport.com
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